Written by our very own ex-assistant big man coach, Patrick Ewing. No surprise he takes credit for helping mold Yao into the beast he is today Pat says that with Yao's dominance lately, he is making a care for being the league's best center. Uh no, Yao is already the league's best center. He doesn't need to make a case for it, he has proven it already. And what does he mean by Yao's dominance lately? He has been doing it for awhile since the 2nd half of last year to be exact and even in the World Champs. It's not as if Yao was suddenly bitten by a radioactive spider and became the man overnight. Link: http://www.nba.com/features/ewing_061128.html Why Now for Yao By Patrick Ewing Posted Nov 29 2006 1:17PM Work ethic and assertiveness translates into breakout season for Yao and the 10-4 Rockets This season the Houston Rockets have been one of the best teams in the Western Conference and Yao Ming as been the league’s most dominant player. At 26.4 points and 10.4 rebounds per game, he is also making a strong case as the league’s best center. Since Yao entered the league in 2002, he has improved every season. A lot of that improvement can be attributed to his work ethic and the teaching he received over the years. Jeff Van Gundy and current Rockets assistant Tom Thibodeau, as well as myself when I was on the staff, have all played a part in laying the foundation for him to get to where he is today, which is now a perennial All-Star player. During the first few years in the league, there seemed to be doubts about Yao’s mental toughness and that too many times he would defer to others on the court. In some instances it was true, but I told him, "If you can score 50 on a player, go ahead and get that 50 no matter who you are playing against. Just keep going and keep pressing." I think he is doing that this year. He is much more assertive. Sometimes he would want to step out to the three point line like some of the European big men we have been seeing over the last few years, but we would tell him, "Get your butt in the post!" Aside from his tremendous willingness to learn, God has blessed him with great size and ability for a guy who is 7-6. He’s agile, has great touch and has pretty good footwork. I always told him, though, that if I had played against him I would have gotten 50 on him. How would I attack him? I would use my quickness. At 7-6, it would be hard to jump and shoot over him, so I would mix it up, sometimes facing up and other times using my jump shot. You definitely have to make him move his feet. But seeing as I left the game the year before he came in, I guess we’ll never know what would really happen. Still, one thing I do know is that if he continues to work as hard as he has, the sky is the limit for him.
I would give Patrick some prop for the development of Yao, but he is too funny when he says he would drop 50 on Yao. Maybe he means Yao would drop 50 on him.
Yao shooting wide open 3's while trailing the ballhandler into a halfcourt set, would be nice to see.
It's no conicindence that Yao started playing well once he was aware that Pat was not going to coach him anymore late last season. He took it a notch higher when it actually happened. Thanks, Pat! BTW, how many times have you scored 50 in your career? I seemed to remember that an over-the-hill Bill Cartwright routinely shut you down even during your peak!
I think he was trying to be sarcastic when he said hed drop 50 on yao. i hear hakeem still pretty quick in the post, he may have a shot one on one.
Exactly. Even at the peak of his career, he was outplayed by Rik Smits regularly in the Eastern conference playoffs. Rik Smits is smaller, slower, less coordinated and less skilled than Yao Ming. If he can't drop 50 on Rik Smits, what makes him think he can use his "quickness" to drop 50 on Yao?
Rik Smits? Try Robert Parish... To give Ewing a little bit of credit (not to imply that he was going to drop fifty on Yao on any given night..): The peak of his career offensively was 1990, when he posted a really, really good season, with a 29.7 PER (by way of contrast, Hakeem's best ever was 27.6 in 1993, Shaq's highest was 30.6 (2x), Kareem's was 29.9, and Wilt's was 32.8). http://basketball-reference.com/players/e/ewingpa01.html The bulk of the reason why his season was so good was that his offense was off the hook - 28.6 ppg with 55% FG and .599 TS% - those are really kick-ass numbers. He wasn't the defender that Olajuwon was at the time, but as far as offense goes he was the class of the league for big men that year. Anyway, that season he put up 40 or more points 11 times, and put up 51 vs. Boston... http://basketball-reference.com/players/e/ewingpa01_1990.html I'm not saying he would automatically put up 50 vs. Yao - probably not. But in his prime he was devestating offensive player and reached rarified air in 1990. The mid 90's Ewing that went against Hakeem in the finals (and Smits in the CF's) wasn't as productive an offensive player as the younger version and relied more on jump shots, didn't get transition baskets, etc.
what an unbelievable load of crap. Everybody getting in line to take credit. Article from Colin Pine coming soon!
My bad, I was looking at his usage rate and then confused it with his pts/40 by accident. Still a pretty damned good season, and offensively he was on fire to an extent that only a few premier big men have ever reached with that TS%.
Well in 1990 he was better PER wise, though only by a point or two; certainly he was a better offensive player during that year. I actually remember being mad when I was younger that Ewing had surpassed Hakeem, who was sort of plateauing at that point (offensively) prior to taking the big leap in 92-93. Hakeem's PER season's really aren't that high....David Robinson at his prime was way higher than Hakeem's are and are some of the highest on record for centers. Of course we all know which player we'd rather have so regular season PER isn't everything. Anyway that's not really my point, it's that the younger (1990) Ewing was a real scoring machine, the mid-90's ewing with 50,000 miles on him who ground it out vs. Rik Smits was not the same player, either production wise or even visually. Not surprising really as Ewing's player reputation as being a tireless worker who went 125% even in pregame warmups probably burned him out early.
